RUSSIAN LNG TO U.S.

RUSSIAN LNG TO U.S.

BLOOMBERG - For a lesson in how liquefied natural gas is radically reshaping the global energy market, consider the tale of a ship heading to Boston. The huge Gaselys tanker is being closely tracked by energy traders, since its arrival would mark the first imports into North America that included some gas from a project in Russia subject to U.S. sanctions. The journey, delayed by weather, could raise questions about where America gets its fuel.

1. Why is the U.S. buying gas from Europe?

Well, it was cold. French energy giant Engie SA bought the cargo to meet high gas demand during freezing weather in the northeast U.S. Although it's not completely unheard of for the U.S. to receive gas from Europe (Norway has previously sent LNG to the U.S.), this would be the first time that the U.S. imported a cargo from northwest European storage tanks, some of which undoubtedly came from the $27 billion Yamal LNG plant Russia started a month ago. The Gaselys tanker changed course Jan. 19 and delayed its date of arrival for weather reasons, according to Engie. Since the ship set off from London three weeks ago, natural gas prices in the northeast U.S. have fallen from record levels.

2. Is it actually Russian gas?

Yes and no. The actual molecules were a mix of gas of varied provenance, coming as they did from a storage tank in the U.K. that also contained fuel from Algeria, Trinidad and Tobago and Qatar, among others. What we do know is that Engie bought the cargo from Petroliam Nasional Bhd and that the Malaysian company in turn bought it from Yamal LNG operator Novatek PJSC. It was the first cargo from the Siberian plant.

3. So why didn't it come straight from Siberia?

Because Yamal LNG is the most northerly plant producing the fuel in the world, with no sun for two months of the year and temperatures that can drop to minus 50 Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit), it had to build the world's first ice-breaking LNG tankers able to sail through more than 2 meters (6.5 feet) of ice. The fuel is transshipped onto cheaper conventional vessels in northwest Europe at terminals with the facilities to do so, including the U.K.'s Isle of Grain. The ice-class tanker Christophe de Margerie picked up the first cargo for delivery to storage tanks. The first vessel of its kind is named after the colorful former Total SA chief executive officer who died in 2014 when his plane crashed into a snowplow at Moscow airport.

4. Why couldn't Boston get U.S. gas?

While the U.S. is the world's biggest natural gas producer and is now also a net exporter of the fuel thanks to its shale gas boom and the start of exports from the Gulf Coast in February 2016, New England is still dependent on LNG brought in on ships for almost 10 percent of its needs, mainly in winter for use in heating, according to the State Department. LNG, which is gas cooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 162 degrees Celsius) so it takes up 1/600th of the volume, can't be shipped in from new export terminals on the Gulf of Mexico. That's because none of the world's fleet of almost 500 tankers meets the requirements of the 1920 Jones Act, which mandates that vessels moving between U.S. ports be built and registered in the country, and crewed by Americans.

5. Is Russian LNG likely to come to the U.S. in the future?

Possibly, but it will depend on prices. As long as they are high enough in Asia to offset increased shipping costs in the winter, cargoes from Yamal will likely go there. Novatek has a contract with Engie for supplies from the project, which are for the Montoir terminal in western France but are not restricted by destination, meaning the French company may send them elsewhere, including its Everett terminal near Boston.

6. Weren't there U.S. sanctions on Russian energy?

The U.S. in 2014 imposed financial sanctions on a number of Russian energy projects, including the Yamal LNG project, due to the nation's role in the Ukrainian crisis. The restrictions forced Novatek to re-think funding options for the project and the company banned deputy chief executive officer Mark Gyetvay from working on the financing deal as he is a U.S. citizen. The project succeeded despite the sanctions. As far as the cargo on the Gaselys is concerned, Engie said the fuel is compliant with all U.S. trade laws.

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Earlier:

RUSSIA:

U.S.:

REUTERS - If the vessel is carrying Russian LNG and ends up in the United States despite the U.S. sanctions against Novatek, it would be the first ever Russian LNG to go to the United States, according to U.S. energy data.

BLOOMBERG - “Never before has the global LNG market had such significant flexible LNG volumes as the volumes coming online in the next three years, mostly from the U.S., which will lead to a fundamental shift in how LNG is marketed and traded globally,”

BLOOMBERG - Energy companies will approve investments for more than 150 million tons a year of new supply capacity over the next four years. By comparison, global consumption was 286 million tons in 2017. Projects in Qatar, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the U.S. are most economically appealing, followed by Mozambique, Australian expansion projects and an Alaskan mega-project.

“This is for sure a complicated project,” Putin said at a ceremony attended by the project partners and the energy minister of Saudi Arabia. “But those who started this project took a risk, and the risk was justified, and they succeeded.”

EIA - In August 2017, total U.S. natural gas liquefaction capacity in the Lower 48 states increased to 2.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) following the completion of the fourth liquefaction unit at the Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Louisiana.

According to Tatiana Mitrova, head of the oil and gas research department at the Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there will be no need for new Russian LNG or pipeline gas to Asia until 2025.

China’s top state oil major Sinopec, one of the country’s top banks and its sovereign wealth fund have agreed to help develop Alaska’s liquefied natural gas sector as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit, the U.S. government said on Thursday.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, and Ben van Beurden, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell, signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 the Heads of Agreement to set up a joint venture.

There are more than a dozen LNG export projects currently being proposed to US regulators, though across the industry almost no final investment decisions have been announced over the last 18 months and some developers have delayed their decisions into 2018 or beyond.

Last week, U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) made its way to the somewhat unlikely market of Lithuania. The former Soviet republic traditionally bought its gas from Russian state company Gazprom; this was its first shipment from the United States.

Chronicle:

AOG - The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) is to invest around $22bn on new energy projects across the next five years, with the renewables sector accounting for an increasing share of electricity generation, according to CEO Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer.

TRANSCANADA - TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP) (NYSE:TRP) (TransCanada or the Company) announced net income attributable to common shares for fourth quarter 2017 of $861 million or $0.98 per share compared to a net loss of $358 million or $0.43 per share for the same period in 2016. For the year ended December 31, 2017, net income attributable to common shares was $3.0 billion or $3.44 per share compared to net income of $124 million or $0.16 per share in 2016.

ROSATOM - February 13, 2018, Moscow. – ROSATOM and the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovations of the Republic of Congo today signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy.

FRB - Industrial production edged down 0.1 percent in January following four consecutive monthly increases. Manufacturing production was unchanged in January. Mining output fell 1.0 percent, with all of its major component industries recording declines, while the index for utilities moved up 0.6 percent. At 107.2 percent of its 2012 average, total industrial production was 3.7 percent higher in January than it was a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector fell 0.2 percentage point in January to 77.5 percent, a rate that is 2.3 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2017) average.